To Love” at 9:30pm in Viewers and Adults 18-49 and Wins its Hour in Men 18-34

“Shaq VS” Holds All of its Week-Ago Debut in Viewers and Adults 18-49,

While Shooting Up 23% from its Series Premiere Among Adults 18-34

“Shaq VS” (9:00-10:00 p.m.)

Jumping from its lead-in and growing from start to finish by an even greater margin on its second telecast, ABC’s “Shaq VS” retained all of its week-ago series debut numbers against established unscripted time-period competition on both NBC (“America’s Got Talent”) and CBS (“Big Brother”) in the 9:00 p.m. hour.On the show’s second episode, Shaquille O’Neal challenged women’s beach volleyball gold medal Olympians Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh to a 2-on-2 match.

Coming out of a repeat airing of the prior week’s episode from 8:00-9:00 p.m., “Shaq VS” surged from its lead-in by nearly 1 million viewers (4.2 million vs. 3.3 million) and by 55% in Adults 18-49 (1.7/5 vs. 1.1/4). In fact the show’s Adult 18-49 build on lead-in (+55%) was substantially bigger on its second airing than on the previous week’s debut telecast (+31%).

Gaining sharply from its first to its second half-hour, “Shaq VS” moved ahead of its Fox freshman unscripted competition at 9:30 p.m. (“More to Love”) in both Total Viewers (4.7 million vs. 4.2 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.9/5 vs. 1.8/5), despite Fox’s lead-in advantage from “Hell’s Kitchen” coming into the hour. In addition, “Shaq VS” topped the 9pm hour with hard-to-reach Men 18-34 (1.7/6), beating “America’s Got Talent” (1.6/5), “Big Brother” (1.4/5) and “More to Love” (1.4/5).

Although it aired out of a smaller lead-in on its second telecast, “Shaq VS” retained 100% of its week-ago debut in Total Viewers (4.2 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.7/5), while shooting up 23% from its premiere with Adults 18-34 (1.6/5 vs. 1.3/4). The show was also up week to week with Men 18-34, Women 18-34 and Women 18-49.

For the 2nd straight week in viewers and young adults, “Shaq VS” pulled in ABC’s strongest summer numbers in the hour with regular programming in over a 1 year – since 8/5/08.

A note about increasing DVR penetration and year-to-year rating comparisons: Year-to-year rating comparisons based on the Live + Same Day data stream are distorted by the level of DVR penetration in the Nielsen sample, which has jumped up to 32% currently, from 26% at the same point in 2008. More viewers are watching shows on their own timetables, which may not be reflected in the overnight next day numbers. The only truly valid year-to-year comparison would be one based on the Live + 7 Day metric, once those stats are released by Nielsen.

Source: Nielsen Media Research (Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day Ratings), 8/25/09.